


this type of life didn’t come with instructions

by cinderlily



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: I have a lot of feelings, M/M, gratuitous schmoop, max domi's beard shouldn't be allowed children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2017-03-16
Packaged: 2018-10-06 01:18:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10322231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderlily/pseuds/cinderlily
Summary: Duke gets called back up just in time for Max's birthday. When Duke comes up to celebrate and a lot of things come to light.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Max's birthday is March 2nd, which has to kind of blow because you know, trade deadline is March 1st. (Feel you kid, my birthday is March 1st.) With his dad being in, he's had to deal with it his whole life!

Duke would completely admit that the trip down to Tucson was a stab in the chest. It had been necessary, he knew it. His shooting had been for shit and he was in some sort of rut. But hearing the phrase ‘sending you down’ was not one anybody wanted to hear, let alone when he was so confident the year before. He did, however, force himself to take it for what it was. 

He worked hard as hell to get himself into a rhythm of extra workouts, he worked with Z when he could on the road. He crashed at a crappy apartment that the AHL provided him because he’d be fucked if he was going to act like Tucson was going to be his home. He was there for one reason and one reason only, to get back to Phoenix. 

Max was encouraging, as he always was, calling him daily and giving him the stupid gossip from the locker room. The tension building as it went towards the trade deadline, the fact that a couple of guys had messed around with some randos on a roadie in Minnesota and now they teased Devo for being a cougar hunter because the ‘girl’ he ended up with had a picture of a daughter who was EASILY the same age as Chych. The weird dating but not dating thing between Chych and Laws. 

The link back was a nice reminder of what he was fighting for, and even if it wasn’t he liked hearing Max’s voice more than he probably should. It calmed him down more than anything else when he was stressed about the game or the road or any number of things. 

Not that he was going to say that to Max. Or anyone, at that. He was just going to think it. A lot. He was going to think it to the point of craziness and then maybe it would go away. When you were interested in guys and played sports you learned one thing rather quickly, you couldn’t be interested in the guys you played with. That was the most basic rule on earth. He watched the destruction that was Oliver and Mikkel. He was smarter than that, right? 

Duke texted him so often that the Roadrunners had a bet going on who “X” was and what ‘her’ name was. He let them tease him, even egged them on with a few random ‘slips’ of girls names to avoid any truth.

When Hanzal and White got traded he was… well. Sad, he loved Hanzal and his family and from the short time he worked with White he knew he was a good guy. The kind of guy who you wanted on your team. But he was also hopeful. He was hopeful that he wasn’t going to get traded and that maybe, just maybe, he’d get his ass back home. 

Maybe it was just the separation (barely 100 miles, he reminded himself often) or maybe it was the phone calls but all he wanted to do was get back to seeing Max everyday. He’d started thinking about it around New Year’s when he’d had a few days off and driven up to bother him. It had been like taking a deep breath of air after sitting at the bottom of the pool for too long. 

Again, not that he would tell Max that. 

Then he got the call. The freaking call he’d been waiting for for what felt like six years, not barely a few months. He’d gotten off of it and scared the crap out of one of the rookies with his whoop, that was easily explained a minute later when he could get his words together enough to say he was going back to Phoenix. 

Which he did, as fast as fucking possible. He had barely unpacked, so putting things back together was quick and easy. He called his parents, first, because he really did want to live past twenty two, but as soon as he hung up the phone he made the next logical phone call. 

“What’s up, D?” Max answered, seemingly distracted. 

“What are you doing for your birthday?” 

There was a pause. “I don’t know, celebrating? I guess? Depending on what happens today. They aren’t trading Doaner, I’m telling you right now. But everything feels up in the air.” 

“What about we go to lunch?” Duke grinned, staring straight forward at the boring road ahead of him. 

“Don’t you guys have a game tomorrow?” Max asked, but his voice was a lot clearer than a moment before. 

Duke couldn’t help himself. “The Roadrunners do.” 

“And you’re a Roadrunner…” 

“Nope,” he popped the ‘p’. “I am a proud member of the Arizona Coyotes.” 

Max let out a whoop. “Are you kidding me? You got called back up? When do you get here?” 

Duke checked his GPS. “An hour and twenty-two minutes, but I’m thinking less.” 

“Fucker, drive safe,” Max said, steely serious. “Fuck, Chych, Duke’s coming back?” 

From the background, he heard a low rumble of Chych going. “Oh thank gd.” 

“SHUT UP,” Max said, and then there was an oof and another one and Duke was pretty sure there was a pillow fight going on. “Duke? Drive safe? I’ve got to school the newbie.” 

“See you soon,” Duke said, hitting the off button on his car’s steering wheel. He looked at the GPS. An hour twenty-one. Yeah, right. 

* 

Exactly an hour later he rolled up to Max’s house, his face hurting from smiling for about two hours straight but he didn’t care. He had the code to get into the subdivision, he even had an extra key on his chain but he wasn’t _that_ creepy. Rather, he walk…well ran to the front door and rang the doorbell three times running. 

He only _slightly_ regretted it when he heard Orion go a bit crazy on the other side, trained or not a dog’s a dog and doorbells were a tease. He was feeling a bit like a dog at that point, if he had a tail it’d be wagging.

The door opened and Orion jumped on him, Max grabbing at his collar and getting him to sit before looking directly at Duke and grinning wildly. He knew the hug was coming but he always forgot the clinging that Max could do. Two seconds later he was being crushed and then smacked directly on the back of his head. 

“ **OW**.” 

“Dude, how fast did you drive? You could have gotten a ticket or in a wreck and then getting called up wouldn’t count.” Max pulled back and looked genuinely upset, like _pissed off_. Which was … not Max at all. He was the one who had a car that was meant to be driven irresponsibly.

He blinked. “Dude, what’s on your face?”

“What the hell do you mean what’s on my face?” Max said. “I told you, we’re having a beard contest.” 

“You look like you should be on the Deadliest Catch,” he said, but Max didn’t smile. 

“There are like dumb ass college students on that road, Anthony.” 

He wanted to say something about only his mom invoking his name like that. “I’m here. Completely whole. What the hell?” 

“Oh god, lover’s quarrel, I’m going to find Laws,” he looked by Max’s shoulder to see Chych looking a bit annoyed. He started to walk towards the garage and tossed over his shoulder. “Good to have you back though.” 

This was not how he’d imagined coming back. He’d imagined walking in and Max going crazy, Chych being excited, Orion being excited. Food getting ordered, maybe some booze. Not a lot or anything, as they had a game the next night. He was completely giddy about the whole it was _they_ who had the game. 

He certainly hadn’t expected Max to be looking at him like he’d broken his favorite stick. He was kind of confused but he was mostly deflated. He put his hands up. 

“Can I come in?” 

Max seemed to look behind him and then forward at where Chych was backing up his car. “Oh, uh. I’m. I’m sorry. Come in.” 

“Sorry,” he said, as Max opened the door wider and he walked past him. “If I like freaked you out or anything.” 

He turned to look at Max and was enveloped in another hug. “Yeah. Sorry. Whatever. You’re _home_ , man. Fuck.” 

“Well, technically I’m less than a mile from home, but you were the first stop,” Duke said, inexplicably warming as he said it. He cleared his throat. “I figured you’d give me some food and shit. Maybe let me kick your ass on Xbox or whatever.” 

Max let go of him. “ _Let you_ is right. Oh, fuck. I got the Switch, early birthday gift to myself. We can play the dinky games. I’m calling it the remains of my Physical Therapy.” 

Duke landed on the couch about a minute later, followed by Max with a hard cider and a beer for them. Orion was at their feet and he could feel the slight tingle under his eyes but he could care less. _Max_ was next to him. Seated like it was nothing. Because he was back in Scottsdale. Who knew for how long but who freaking cared? Max handed him a set of remotes and smiled like a shark. 

“Come on, let me show you the ropes,” he said, the system already on. He’d probably been playing it all day with Chych, which there was not a twinge of jealousy as Chych was a literal infant even if he was an Abercrombie and Fitch model personified 

Speaking of which. “What was Chych’s problem? Has it really been that long that he forgot we chide on the reg?” 

Max shifted beside him. “He’s just a brat. Dude, we were not that bad as rookies. I swear, I feel like I’m genuinely raising a baby brother.” 

“We weren’t annoying rookies _last year_?” 

Well, technically he hadn’t been a rookie, but they’d been one unit last year. Living wise and every otherwise. They just stuck together and the fact that Max was known as the Rookie made Duke one in tandem. It was just how it worked. 

“He’s all up in my business like a baby brother,” Max said, eyes trained on the screen. Duke was trying to focus on the screen but he kept giving Max side glances. “He’s _worse than my sisters_. Also, I think he’s in contact with them somehow. I knew Christmas was a total mistake.” 

Duke laughed, Max had started a game that involved fake punching of some sort so he started in on it. “Awww, he’s conspiring with your sisters? What are they doing? Telling your dad everything you do. Too late, he already knows.” 

Max nudged him. “Shut up, Duke. He's like, reading into things. Like. All the time.” 

“From the minds of babes,” Duke said. “Speaking of which, are he and Laws getting busy yet or are they too dense still.” 

“I don’t know,” Max said, upper cutting Duke’s character and getting a knockout. He paused for a victory drink. “VICTORY. I’ll have to bug Murphs. He’s got an in with Lawson. Or maybe Tobi does. Either way, it’s enough to get me the information I need.” 

Duke laughed and took a sip of his beer. “Which is whether or not two of our teammates are all about each other.” 

“Would not be the first,” Max muttered, lips wrapped around the bottle. “Another round?” 

Duke looked at the screen to see his avatar lying on the ground. But fucked if he was going to let the punk win this one. “Yeah, though it’s totally not fair, you’ve had hours on me.” 

“Chych is freaking crazy at this. His hand-eye is too good for me,” Max shrugged. “Either way, birthday privileges.” 

“Still got a few hours for that to take effect, fucker,” Duke pointed out. “And there was nothing too crazy today so pretty good pre-birthday, right?” 

Max smiled at him. “I got you back, right? Better gift than I was expecting.” 

Duke felt something in his chest tighten and then relax in turn. He was so relieved to just be back, but the irony of the moment was that he still felt just as distant from Max when Max was less than a foot away than he felt when he was a hundred miles away. He felt like there was a chasm there like he was supposed to just… jump or something but there was no way that was happening. He wasn’t getting back from Tucson to fuck it all up by admitting feelings and shit. He wasn’t that much of a dumb ass. Or at least he was pretty sure he wasn’t. 

He put his controllers on his leg and rubbed his hands together. “I guess birthday privilege and all. But give me a second to prepare for this slaughter”. Max just grinned. 

*

Two hours and about three drinks each later, they were only halfway playing the game. Duke had gotten a handle on it and had even beat him in a few of the more random games on the disc that apparently had come with it. He let himself relax back into the couch to the point that he had his feet underneath him and was sitting like he’d done as a kid when they finally got a Nintendo 64 and he and his brother would have competitions for hours and hours. 

Max had brought out some cold chicken and heated up vegetables at one point and they picked off it like the heathens they were, each taking turns. Orion moved to Max’s side, as Max was more than willing to share his food with the dog and Duke was thankful, the small distance made his eyes less fuzzy. Not much, but a little. 

His brain was … fuzzyish. 

“We have a game tomorrow,” he said, the next time Max said something about grabbing a drink. “You know. _WE_ do.” 

Max broke out in a huge grin. “Yeah, we do. Took you long enough, you know how lame it is up here without you?” 

“I know, I know, I’m kind of the best,” he pretended to pop the color. He was not drunk by any stretch of the imagination but he was definitely feeling the light headedness. Which was probably not a good idea the night before his first day back. “Do you have SmartWater? Electrolytes and Tylenol might be a good idea.” 

Max jumped up and walked out of the room, Orion following at his feet. It was probably out of control to be jealous of a dog but he was also jealous of an 18-year-old so all of his dignity was slowly going out the window. 

“Why would you be jealous of an 18-year-old…wait… Chych? You’re jealous of Jakob Chychrun? **Why**?” Max said, holding two bottles of water and a bottle of Tylenol.

He was frozen in the moment, as he hadn’t thought he was in the realm of ‘saying things out loud’ buzzed. That was usually a few more beers in. 

“I didn’t say that,” he tried. 

Max tilted his head. “Dude, you were muttering but not that bad. What the hell would you be jealous of Chych about? He can’t drink for 3 years, he pines after Crouse who I think might be _actually_ straight not like ‘buddies’ straight. And ABERCROMBIE? I’d say more Ralph Lauren. Like, a house in the Hamptons’...” 

“BUDDIES straight?” Duke was confused, he stood up. “What the fuck?” 

“You know, how you are like mostly straight but roadies happens or Juniors… and stuff happens?” Max’s voice tapered towards the end. “You know what I’m talking about, right?” 

Duke looked at Max for a full minute, grabbed a bottle of water and some Tylenol because _fuck his head_. After he swallowed down a few pills he paused to breathe. 

“You fucked a guy at Juniors?” 

The ‘ _and it wasn’t me_ ’ was just in his head, he made damn sure of that. 

“Naw, I was too busy hanging out with you, but like half the team did. Come on, Nurse and Morin? McDavid caught them twice. He was going to murder Nurse if he caught them a third time.” 

Yeah, Duke’s brain was going to explode in his skull and maybe he did drive too fast and this was hell. Or heaven. Or hell. Probably hell. 

“Are you buddies straight?” 

Max laughed. “Nope.” 

Duke’s stomach dropped. That fucking sucked. 

“I’m straight up bi,” he said, falling back down on the couch. “I told you that. Right? At Shane’s Halloween party. You told me you were mostly gay, I said I was totally halfsies. It was nice. Geez, how drunk were you?” 

“YOU KNOW I’M GAY?” 

Max covered his mouth with a hand. “Yeah, Anthony. Even before you told me. Your eyes linger on Crosby’s ass too much. Granted, I can’t fight you on that one.” 

Tentatively Duke sat down a few feet away from Max and turned towards him. “You let me play straight to you for months because?” 

“You said you were mostly gay, I figured you just were more comfy with talking about girls,” Max shrugged. “Why are you being… did you not remember telling me? You didn’t know I was bi? I said I wanted to mount Jason Momoa like Everest! More than once!” 

Duke narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t know you were serious.” 

“I’m bi,” Max said, spreading his free hand with jazz fingers. “You’re gay… are you okay?” 

He tried to nod but he was halfway sure he was hyperventilating. He’d been pining for Max for … fuck. For a long time and it turned out that the guy also liked guys. Not that it changed anything as if Max had known… then he could have done something. But he didn’t. So. 

“Duke,” Max smacked his shoulder. “Look at me, man.” 

He turned to Max and swallowed. “Sorry. Just. A lot to process here. Does… anyone else know?” 

“About you?” 

He nodded. 

“No, Chych knows about me….” Max frowned. “He is an ass about it. But I brought a guy home a month in and I kind of _had_ to tell him, you know?” 

Duke’s fists balled up, yeah. This time he was allowed to be jealous. Bringing a guy home. A random fuck who could tell all the world he screwed Max _freaking_ Domi. But he couldn’t yell at him about it. It wasn’t his place. He felt the urge to stand up and move but suddenly Orion had his head on Duke’s knee. 

“Dude, you’re stressing out the dog,” Max said. “What the hell?” 

“I should go,” he said through clenched teeth. “Sorry.” 

Max was up much faster than he was, to be fair he did have a dog rubbing his face on his knee and giving him puppy eyes. “Oh hell no. Like we need you getting a DUI. Also, you don’t get out of this... tell me what’s going on.” 

Two options. Well, he probably had about two hundred options but two realistic options. He was either going to run like a scared bunny (Uber) or… he could just come clean. Lying was not a good option, as Max knew Duke too well for that. Even if he half told the truth he knew he was going to get called out on it and frankly the more annoyed Max got the more he would just dig and annoy him. 

He looked at Orion who was whining low at his knee. Of course, even Max’s dog would have that kind of power over him. 

“When I told you I was gay did I say anything else?” he said, not quite able to look at him. 

Max laughed. “Dude, you told me a lot of shit that night. You had some very precise things to say about Mikkel’s thighs and what a waste they were in San Jose. You also said that Shane had the prettiest eyes you’d ever seen and that you were sorry that you were allergic to dogs. Like you had any choice over that.” 

“I didn’t say if I had a crush on someone at the party?” 

There was is a long silence. “Crush at the party?”

“If I told you Mikkel’s thighs were incredible, Shane had pretty eyes… did I say anything specific? About one person.” 

“No,” Max said, tersely. “You didn’t.” 

Duke inhaled deeply. Fuck. He probably could have gotten away with a lot of things today. He blamed adrenaline, alcohol and his own general stupidity. But when it came to Max it was never just general stupidity, it was _layers_ of stupidity, which apparently he’d reached a new one. 

Max stared at him, hard. “You have a crush?” 

“Yes.” 

“On a player on _our team_?” Max said. “And you didn’t tell me?” 

Duke let out a choked laugh. “To be fair, I didn’t know you knew I was gay until about five minutes ago.” 

“Duke, I am your best friend. You know I wouldn’t play you like that. Even if I didn’t know, which by the way I did give you shit for taking a year and a half to tell me about it, fucker, I would still not have freaked out if you told me. You _know this_.” 

He gnashed his teeth. “Yeah, I know that.”

Max had his arms out. “SO then why the FUCK wouldn’t you tell me that you had a crush on someone at the par…?” 

There was a long moment where Duke could almost watch the penny dropping. Max’s eyes went blank and his face (well what Duke could see of it) paled. His hands slowly dropped, one landing on Orion who’d given up on Duke the instant he saw Max acting weird. Duke felt like maybe, possibly, he could just run as fast as he could and find and Uber but the damn Canadianness of him had him without freaking shoes on. 

“You wouldn’t tell me if it was me,” Max said, slowly, like he was testing out how the words sounded out loud. “You wouldn’t tell me because you wouldn’t know how I would react if it was _me_.” 

Duke nodded tightly, he was pretty sure his jaw was going to break if he kept it shut as tightly as it was. 

“Fuck me,” Max said, rubbing his beard with one hand. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” 

“Can I call Uber now?” Duke shifted uncomfortably, going so far as to grab his phone and unlock it. Max grabbed it and tossed it onto a nearby chair. “Hey wait, what the fuck, I’ve been making AHL money, dude, not fair.” 

Max’s face was close, closer than was socially acceptable and DEFINITELY closer than Duke usually allowed. He didn’t have space issues, he played a full freaking contact sport, but he could see individual eyelashes and that’s kind of past the close stage. 

“Are you fucking with me Duclair?” 

Duke shook his head. “Why would I fuck with you about that?” 

“And Chych hasn’t called you,” Max’s mouth was firmly in a frown, even hidden underneath all the hair. 

He blinked. “Chych has only called me to ask if napping too long was a sign of low sugars.” 

He was just about to ask what Chych knew that he didn’t but then there was lips on his, warm and urgent and holy _shit_ they were Max’s. Max was kissing him. He was being kissed by Max. Lips against lips. His stomach felt like he’d gone over a big dip in a car. He must have been not moving because Max went to pull back but Duke was not having that. 

He lifted his hand and put it behind Max’s head and tugged him in closer. This time, he joined in on the kiss, licking his bottom lip and biting gently. He turned his head and pushed further in, Max taking his chance to pull on Duke’s short hair. They’d work on the mechanics later, for now he was just enjoying the feel of skin against skin and the fact that this was real. (Well, he was eighty percent sure it was real, but if this was heaven, he was in.) 

A few minutes later he pulled back and looked Max in the eyes. “You didn’t tell me you had a crush either.” 

“Well, you hadn’t told me, so I figured you _would_ and if you didn’t then I would just be the idiot. Then I was injured, you went down to Tucson… It was a lot. And Chychrun told me to tell you when I saw you last but fuck that, I wasn’t going to either look like a tool or have you say yes and then long distance it.” 

Duke’s brows went up. “CHYCH KNEW BEFORE I DID.” 

“Maybe,” Max said, looking away. “I mean, he might have guessed? After I got really freaking bummed about you going to the AHL and like apparently our FaceTime’s made him think I was talking to a significant other and I had to explain it was _you_....” 

“Marde…”

“He won’t tell anyone. He hasn’t even told Lawson and he tells him everything,” Max said, his voice a little anxious. “I mean, we can keep this low key.” 

Duke rolled his eyes. “No, fucker, I meant marde in the sense that an 18-year-old caught on quicker than we did. It’s embarrassing.” 

“THAT’S WHAT I SAID!” Max called out. “Well, about him catching on about me. No one else on the team sees it but freaking baby Chych is here six months and calls me out.” 

“Well, others can know soon,” Duke said. 

Max raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?” 

“It’ll make the PDA less confusing,” Duke winked at him and gave him a small kiss on the lips. 

Max laughed. “How long have you been in the NHL? We could do all but fuck in front of the guys and it would be called ‘buddies’.” 

Duke tilted his head, probably pretty true. “We are never ever testing that.” 

“There goes Valentine’s Day.” 

“That was two weeks ago, jackass.” 

Max quirked an eyebrow. “You got plans for NEXT Valentine’s Day?” 

Duke couldn’t help but grin like an idiot at that. Max leaned in to give him another kiss, sweet and gentle. Duke pushed him forward. 

“Now, we’ve got to talk about the beard…” 

“It’s a CONTEST,” Max said, as he’d explained a hundred times. 

Duke put his mouth below the beard line on his neck and licked, blowing air on it and then giving a small bite. Max let out a hiss and pushed Duke back to give him a deep kiss. 

“A contest, eh? I can think of a contest…” Duke said with a grin, pulling back. 

Max made an annoyed face. “Can we talk about this later.” 

They would. Just a lot later.


End file.
